Christmas craft 2009 (I)

Last week, we drove through the shopping district to admire the Christmas lights. Christmas decorations have been up at Orchard Road since Hallowe'en and I do love wandering down the road surrounded by all the twinkly lights.

This year, most of the big malls decided to put up stylised versions of Christmas trees. I was very drawn to the simple, two-dimensional designs which reminded me of the Jesse trees that are sometimes used in Christian art to represent the geneology of Christ.

I decided to make a Jesse tree for our house and decorate it over the course of the Advent season, using symbols to represent events leading up to the Nativity story. I've been working on it during my spare time over the course of the week.

Using a grid, I copied the outline of the tree onto a sheet of cardboard and painstakingly cut it out. Afterwards, I reinforced the back of the cutout with glued on strips of left over cardboard.

I bought some printed green corduroy ($9.90/m at Spotlight) and wrapped it around the cutout, stapling it at the back to hold it in place, using masking tape to hold down the loose flaps of cloth.

This means that the back of the tree is an untidy mess of staples, fraying fabric and masking tape. I could have taken more time over it to make it neater but I have been inspired by Rowena of Rostitchery who says that 'Done is better than perfect'.

We decided to follow a forty day Advent calendar that our church pastor had printed in the Sunday bulletin.

Last night, I sat at the computer for hours, searching for images on the internet. My task this week is to colour and cut out forty pictures and mount them onto felt circles.

I feel rather proud of myself for sticking to this project!